Thou Shalt Not Kill
by Rini Cereal
Summary: You all remember the night Wolfwood and Milly spent together. The last night they had before he died. Many rumors and theories sprouted up from that night. Well one of them came true...Now Milly has a daughter who has become very curious about her father.
1. Nicole Wolfwood

Milly held the baby in her arms, wishing that Wolfwood was there in that hospital, gazing down on the child with the same wonder and awe that filled her now. Vash and Meryl were grinning from ear to ear (Vash was bawling of course) and asking the baby's name. Milly was silent for a moment. She could only think of one name that would fit the baby girl: "Nicole."

---

"Nikki, where are you going?" The raven-haired girl only kept running, laughing as loudly as possible. Milly sat back on the porch swing and grinned._She looks so much like her father when she laughs,_ she thought with a giggle. Indeed, the young Nicole had her father's almost exact features. When she whirled around to face her mother, her shoulder length, black hair whirled with her. It even seemed to stick up in the same places. Her eyes were her most similar trait. They were the exact smoky grey of Nicholas D Wolfwood's.

"No where, Mom!" Nikki called back. "I just wanted to see your reaction to that. It wasn't as entertaining as I thought it would be, so I'll be coming back now!" Milly laughed as Nikki began jogging back toward the house. She jumped into the porch swing, causing a terrible racket of the chain clanking and Milly screaming.

"Nikki, don't do that!" Milly grabbed her daughter's wrist and the side of the swing for support. Nikki, in turn, surprised by Milly's sudden grip on her wrist, leaped up again with a short scream. She yanked her arm from Milly's fist, and did so such force that she toppled backward and landed in the dust. Yes, she had her father's appearance, but she had her mother's personality.

When Milly had also jumped up from the swing, she looked at Nikki on the ground and laughed as she began to help her up. "You remind me of myself sometimes!" she giggled. Nikki laughed again. _Until she laughs,_ Milly smiled.

---

Meryl peered out the window at Milly and Nikki, but continued to type up her reports. "Those two," she grinned to herself.

"What two?" It was difficult to understand what Vash had said when he entered the room for his mouth was stuffed with food as usual. Meryl pointed out the window as Vash gave a loud, gulping swallow. He pressed his forehead against the window to get a better view of the girls outside (he was looking out the second story window) and straigtened up with a laugh. "It's incredible how well Milly has been able to raise her. She has her mother's spirit!"

Meryl nodded. "It's amazing. She acts so much like Milly, yet she looks so much like...well...like him." She turned her head toward a large gun cabinet on one end of the room. Her gaze fell on an enormous cross, wrapped in cloth and rope inside the gun cabinet. It had been Wolfwood's when he was still alive. Vash had found him dead in the church and brought his cross back.

Since then, Milly had refused to leave the town, claiming she wanted to raise the baby in the place where her daddy died. Vash and Meryl didn't know what she was talking about back then (having not known that she was pregnant), but agreed to stay.

Vash waved his hand in front of Meryl's face. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah. I really need to focus if I want to get these reports done. Go downstairs until I'm finished and I'll start dinner." Vash gave a mock salute, turned and marched out of the room. Meryl shook her head and turned her attention back toward her reports.

---

"Uncle Vash!" Nikki scrambled herself toward her spiky, blonde-haired uncle and thrust herself into his arms. Vash caught her, almost with ease, and put her down.

"Happy birthday, Nikki!" he yelled, imitating the loud voice she had used when she jumped at him. "How old are you now anyway?"

"Fifteen years, seventeen hours and fourteen minutes. I counted." Nikki returned proudly. Milly chuckled behind her as Vash slapped a gloved palm to his forehead.

"Fifteen? You don't look fifteen," he added, sizing her up.

"Deal with it." Nikki growled. "I am fifteen." She pounced and tackled Vash into the dust. They wrestled for a moment before Vash was begging for mercy and Milly was lifting Nikki off of him.

"We'd better go in," Milly said. "Meryl will probably have dinner started. Come on Mr. Vash." she added, using the old nickname she used to call him.

"No need to tell me twice!" Vash called bolting through the door before the girls had even reached it.


	2. Argument at Dinner

Nikki could only stare at her plate. The dinner looked great, but somehow, she couldn't bring herself to eat it. A strange thought was pulling at the back of her mind. Though she knew it was there, she couldn't tell what it was. It was driving her crazy...

"Nicole?" Nikki jerked her head upward.

"What?"

"Are you okay?" the concerned voice belonged to Meryl. Her head was tilted over her own plate and she was looking at Nikki with an expression of mixed worry and care.

"Yes, I'm fine." Nikki responded. "And I told you to call me Nikki. I hate the name Nicole." Meryl's brows lowered. Nikki turned her gaze toward her mother, who suddenly looked hurt, then to Vash, who wouldn't meet her eyes. "Mom? What's wrong?" It was Meryl who ansered her question.

"You shouldn't hate your name," she said simply, cutting into her steak.

"Why not? It's too fancy for me. I don't like it."

Meryl slammed her fork and knife onto the table so suddenly that Nikki jumped. "It's ok, Meryl." It was Milly's voice that said it. "She doesn't understand."

"What don't I understand?" Nikki cried.

"Maybe when you're older, we'll tell you," this voice belonged to Vash. Now it was Nikki that that slammed her hands down.

"Why is everyone keeping secrets from me!?" She hadn't meant to yell, but her "family" was frustrating her. Vash and Milly looked suprised.

"Nikki," Milly began.

"No, why?!"

"Nikki, please!" Vash yelled.

"Are you in on it too? Are you keeping something from me?" Nikki was furious now.

"No, Nikki, I didn't mean--"

Nikki looked at him, hurt. How could her own Uncle Vash, her own best friend for fifteen years, keep something from her? And apparently it was something big.

"I hate you," she said softly.

Now Vash looked hurt. "Nikki--"

"Don't talk to me..." Nikki pushed herself away from the table and ran upstairs to her room. Vash, Meryl, and Milly stared after her, unable to say anything.


	3. Who Is My Father?

"Nikki, are you okay?"

Nikki's bedroom door creaked open. She threw a pillow at it. "Go away."

"Please talk to me." The door opened wider, framing her mother. "Nicole--"

"I told you, I hate that name!"

"Nicole," Milly said more insistantly, putting her arms around her daughter. "Please tell me what's bothering you." Nikki closed her eyes and sighed.

"What are you keeping from me? Why shouldn't I hate my name?" She then opened her eyes and upturned her chin to look into her mother's sad eyes. Milly sighed.

"You were named after you're father." Nikki didn't understand.

"So? He's gone, he never comes to see me. Why should I care about him?" Milly's expression was painful for Nikki to look upon, so she turned away. Milly breathed another sigh.

"You know nothing of your father..."

"Is that my fault?" Nikki immediately regretted the question. Milly shook her head.

"No. I admit that it's mine." She paused. "Do you want me to tell you about him?" Nikki nodded, and pulled herself away from Milly's embrace. She sat cross-legged on her bed, facing the wall. Milly sat on the edge of the bed.

"He was a great man," she began. "He was so kind, and loving. He was a travelling priest. He also told me that he worked at an orphanage once. I believe you have a friend who was there. His name is Rowan." Nikki raised her eyebrows.

"Really? Rowan knew my father?"

"Yes. You can ask if he remembers him, but I doubt it. He was only a baby then. Anyway, We met him on a train in the desert, where he and Vash saved a little girl. He was so nice and friendly. I liked him the minute I saw him. He began travelling with us. It was great to have him around. Then that terrible day came..." Milly paused to breathe a sigh. Nikki stared at the wall.

"He had killed a child. He was so upset. I made him sandwiches and coffee, but he started to cry. I tried to comfort him. Then, well you happened. And morning came. He told me to stay here." Milly's voice was distant as she patted Nikki's bed. "Here in this very room on this very bed. And I did. Hours passed and still no news of him." Nikki didn't like where this story was going.

"Vash came back," Milly continued. "with your father's cross."

"The cross in the gun cabinet." Nikki didn't make it a question.

"Yes." Milly gave one more sigh. "I knew what had happened, but I couldn't believe it. I kept thinking that he would walk through that door somehow, and be okay. I cried so long after that. Nikki..." She paused. "You're father hasn't abandonded you...He's dead." Milly hid her face in her hands at the painful memory of that day. "But." She lifted her face with a faint smile. "You were born. And you looked just like him. Down to the last feature. It was like having him around again."

"Mom?" Nikki had only one more question. "Who is my father?"

"His name was Nicholas D. Wolfwood."


	4. Trouble at School

"Wolfwood!"

Nikki jumped into reality and snapped her attention back to the chalkboard. Her science teacher, Professor Caine, gave her and evil stare.

"Would you like to tell the class the equation for finding out a liquid's acidity?" Nikki felt her ears growing hot with ebarrassment.

"Not really, no."

"Then I suggest you wake up. Next time you won't have a choice." Professor Caine shook his head and went back to his lecture. Nikki's best friend, Rowan, elbowed her hard in the ribs. She clutched them and sent him an "I know" glare. The class droned on, but Nikki didn't hear a word Caine was saying. She stared at her desk top, deep in thought.

My father was a priest? Why didn't Mom tell me about him?

The bell rang out, awakening Nikki once more. She jammed her book into her already heavy book bag and slung the bag over one shoulder. She and Rowan left the classroom, Nikki dragging her feet.

"So what are you doing after school?" Rowan asked casually.

"Going home," Nikki responded with a sigh. "I am so tired." She managed to lift her chin and look at the student filled hallway with a certain apathy. "Oh no." Rowan looked up as well.

Walking down the hall towards the two of them was a boy only known to Nikki as Cameron. Nikki tried desperately to avoid him, but the hallway was packed and he had a habit of deliberately slamming into her shoulder. Which he did.

"Watch where you're going!" he snapped. Before Nikki could retaliate, he turned and ground his way through the crowd.

"Ignore him, Nikki," Rowan said comfortingly. He placed a hand on her shoulder, then quickly removed it when she practically fractured her neck in turning her head towards him. She rubbed the back of it slowly.

"Someday I am just gonna beat the crap out of that guy," she mumbled. "I'm going to crush his face into the dirt so he can eat it like the filthy scum that he is!" She went on with her antagonized rambling, but Rowan seemed to ignore it.

"Yeah, he probably deserves it," Rowan agreed.

"There is no 'probably'," Nikki fumed_. _"He _does_ deserve it."

---

Nikki felt a sudden shove from behind. She stumbled forward and fell to her knees in the dirt, much to the delight of the other students. "I told you to watch where you're going!" Nikki stood and whirled around. If Rowan were there, he'd have told her to calm down, but Rowan was not there. Sometimes it was a shame Nikki had her father's temper.

"Quit pushing me and maybe I will someday! Until then, I'll just have to push you back won't I?"

"You shut up, you little orphan!"

"I am _not_ an orphan!"

"You are too! I heard about your dad! He was shot dead, because he was too weak to take care of a friggin' kid!"

"Shut up!" Nikki clenched her fists until her knuckles were white and her fingernails began biting into her palms.

"If he had any sense at all, he wouldn't have been around fighting everyone!" This time, Nikki cracked her knuckles on his cheekbone.


End file.
